1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catheter, especially a catheter for treatment of acute, sub-acute, or chronic total occlusions (“CTOs”), in particular, the catheter facilitates crossing CTOs of the coronary or peripheral vasculature, and methods for manufacture and use of the catheter.
2. Description of Related Prior Art
Catheters for treating chronic total occlusions exist in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,085 to Selmon et al. (hereinafter “Selmon”) describes a catheter system for treatment of occluded blood vessels.
The prior art catheters, however, are not able to circumnavigate vasculature in a flexible state and, when ready to treat a vessel occlusion, to become fixed in the vasculature so that virtually all of the force acting upon the occlusion is used against the occlusion instead of on the catheter to displace the catheter proximally. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a catheter that has the ability to change its flexibility state from flexible and soft to hard and rigid upon the command of the user.